The Scandinavian Festival returns Thursday, Aug. 13, with traditional food, dancing, and cultural activities at Scandinavian Festival Park in Junction City.
The volunteer director of publicity and marketing for the Scandinavian Cultural Foundation, Rebecca MacDonald, has been part of the festival since she was a child.
“I grew up in Junction City. I started dancing when I was 3. I worked in booths, I worked in parking lots,” she said. “I’ve been a part of that festival since I was very little; it’s been a part of my life for a really long time.”
That connection to tradition is part of what organizers hope visitors experience at the festival. MacDonald said many vendors offer authentic Scandinavian foods and products that can be difficult to find elsewhere locally.
The decades-old festival also requires performers and vendors to dress in 1800s regional attire or Viking attire. Traditional-style booths or small structures are built to make visitors feel as though they’re walking through a small Scandinavian town.
“We really try to make our festival feel like you’re taking a step back in time to an 1800s Scandinavian village,” MacDonald said. “More than just performers are dressed up, so it really feels like an immersive experience.”
To celebrate the festival’s 65th year, organizers have partnered with the Junction City Historical Society to include photographs from some of the festival’s earliest years in the free annual festival magazine.
“They donated a bunch of photos from the 60s and 70s,” Macdonald said. “It’s so neat to look at that and reflect on how it’s grown over the years and also to see how it stayed the same.”
This year’s festival will also feature over 90 vendor booths and performers from across the country as well as locally.
MacDonald said her favorite festival activity, aside from eating lots of Frikadeller or Danish meatballs, is the community dance. Each day, after closing ceremonies, everyone is welcome to get on the stage and dance together.
“The stage is always packed, from the little kids to the dancers who’ve been dancing for decades,” she said. “And there’s nothing quite like it out there, I don’t think, just the size of how many people are out there dancing together, these old polkas that have been around for a hundred or more years!”
The Scandinavian Festival runs Aug. 13 through Aug. 16. This year’s map and schedule can be found at junctioncityscandia.org.
